By Sangeeth Sebastian

Erotic carvings on medieval church buildings are surprisingly common throughout Europe. Many of them are figurative carvings of naked women displaying an over-sized vulva, locally known as Sheela na gigs.  The largest number of such images can be found in Ireland, a predominantly Roman Catholic country and one of the most religious among, among all European nations, till recently.

Sheela-na-gigs were regarded as way too offensive during the Victorian age that many of them were defaced and kept diapered inside the national museum, away from the gaze of the public.

Nobody seems to be sure how they got their peculiar sounding name. Some believe the name ‘Sheela’ got stuck through popular usage. ‘Gig’ in Northern English is a slang word for female genitals.

Yet scholars are divided on the exact significance, origin and relevance of these images. A popular hypothesis is that Sheela na gigs represent a pagan goddess. If this is true, it is possible that Christians decided to keep that part of the pagan temple they
were destroying to build the church on top of it.

 Another, more credible theory is that these figures fit in with Christianity’s representation of female lust, which Augustine talked about, as hideous and sinfully corrupting.

This may also account for the grotesque features of these images, compared to the divine radiance and grace exuded by many erotic sculptures on ancient Hindu temples—essentially defining two conflicting ideologies: one, elevating sex to the sacred and the other denigrating it.